1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to an apparatus and method for preventing the inflow of the exhaust gas of a vehicle, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for preventing exhaust gas from being reintroduced into the vehicle at a reduced pressure, which takes place inside of the vehicle when the vehicle is traveling.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, the inside of a vehicle is fundamentally designed and manufactured to be airtight using a weather strip, a seal, etc. However, because of manufacturing error or tolerance, gaps exists in between components of vehicles. Thus, air inevitably flows through these gaps to the inside of a vehicle to some extent, which may cause the phenomenon of the reintroduction of exhaust gas.
Specifically, when a vehicle travels at high speed as shown in FIG. 1, the outside air speed related to the vehicle increases considerably and the pressure drops, so the inside air of a vehicle is strongly inclined to escape to the outside where there is low pressure.
When air escapes from the inside of the vehicle through a fine gap, exhaust gas being exhausted from the rear of the vehicle may be reintroduced into the inside of the vehicle through gaps in the trunk or in the undersurface of a vehicle body while staying at the rear of the vehicle due to an eddy phenomenon.
This phenomenon is generally assumed to be caused by a difference in pressure between the inside and outside of the vehicle. Here, if an air conditioner of a vehicle is in air-open mode wherein the outer air is introduced into the inside of the vehicle, the outside air compensates for the reduction of pressure in the inside of the vehicle, resulting in less or no introduction of exhaust gas.
However, if the air conditioner is in air-close mode, the air escaped from the inside of the vehicle is not compensated, essentially causing a reduction in the inside pressure, which may result in the introduction of exhaust gas. This phenomenon becomes severe at high speeds, because the higher the vehicle speed is, the larger the pressure difference is between the inside and outside of the vehicle.
Therefore, there is a need to effectively prevent the exhaust gas from flowing in and keep the inside air pleasant without the addition of a specific construction that may increase the costs.
Some technologies have been proposed in which a mode door is partially opened such that outside air is partially introduced and is mixed with the inside door in order to improve the efficiency of an air conditioner. However, unlike the conventionally technologies, the present application aims at keeping the inside pressure constant irrespective of the operation of the air conditioner by minimally regulating a tilt angle of a mode door. This concept has not yet been disclosed in the related art.
The information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.